abstract
| - Through the 1950s and early 1960s, U.S. Naval survey ships, including United States Coast and Geodetic Survey ships engaged by the U.S. Navy, made major discoveries in Earth science. In 1955 for example, scientist aboard the USC&GS Pioneer (OSS 31) first observed the ocean floors magnetic striping while the ship towed the first marine magnetometer (developed at the University of California’s Scripps Oceanographic Research Institute) along the United State’s western coastal waters during the “Pioneer survey”. The discovery of magnetic stripping in combination with the discovery of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge’s seismologically active central valley was critical to the later development of the theory of plate tectonics. As to the Maury, herself, newly expanding oceanographic research aboard survey ships of the 1950s and early 1960s also concentrated heavily on the interaction between ocean and atmosphere. ”In 1958 … in July … her (the Maury’s) North Atlantic resurvey missions were extended and she crossed the ocean to chart the waters in and around the Shetland and Faroe Islands. Throughout this period, while fulfilling her primary assignment of correcting navigational charts, she added to meteorological knowledge by studying the North Atlantic’s weather patterns, particularly with regard to hurricanes.” The ship served under both her names as a commissioned ship for 24 years and 9 months. The ship was originally laid down under a Maritime Commission contract (MC Hull 1897) as Renate (AKA-36) on 21 November 1944 at Providence, R.I., by Walsh-Kaiser Co., Inc.; launched on 31 January 1945; sponsored by Mrs. Joseph L. Baker; and commissioned at State Pier No.1, Providence, on 28 February 1945, Lt. Cmdr. Joseph F. Wickham, USNR, in command.
|